Conventional cabin designs for wide-body aircraft do not maximize passenger comfort and are detrimental to the short term health of travelers. With the introduction and availability of relatively inexpensive integrated circuit chip technology and other innovations, it is now possible to design the cabin of wide-body aircraft such that passengers may assume an almost complete horizontal position during transcontinental and long intercontinental flights. In a horizontal position, the weight of a passenger's body is more evenly distributed thereby preventing back pain, swelling of the ankles and feet, and other forms of physical discomfort.
Shortcomings in conventional cabin designs have been recognized since the beginning of commercial aviation, and many ideas have been advanced to improve passenger accommodations. Unfortunately, many of these designs were deemed to be impractical.
Of some interest is U.S. Pat. No. 2,081,529 granted on May 25, 1937 to F. R. Canney. It was meant to provide sleeping berths in smaller and slower planes. Seats had to be converted into sleeping berths and, in addition, the seats faced both forward and rearward, a configuration now forbidden by Federal regulations.
Also of interest is U.S. Pat. No. 2,092,655 granted on Sep. 7, 1937 to G. A. Page, Jr. Its arrangement for sleeping on aircraft was similar to first-class sleeping arrangements on railroad cars. It was never implemented probably because the convertible cabins were not efficient enough even for the very limited needs of air transportation in those days.
Also relevant is U.S. Pat. No. 2,124,003 granted on Jul. 19, 1938 to J. S. McDonnell, Jr. et al. The invention was meant to provide privacy in closed cabin-like arrangements, but since two seating rows were required for every sleeping row, only half the number of seats could have been used. Similar to Pullman sleepers used on railway coaches, this invention was also meant for relatively small planes and would not meet the needs of mass transportation. Any successful solution for greater passenger comfort on aircraft must be efficient enough to satisfy the many air travellers who normally fly only when air fares are relatively low.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,208,683 granted on Jul. 23, 1940 to G. A. Page, Jr. also recommended converting aircraft seats into sleeping berths, and then back again. This invention was labor-intensive and made inefficient use of cabin space. As a result, this invention would increase air fares considerably. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 2,280,065 granted on Apr. 21, 1942 to T. De Roode, also requires converting seats into sleeping berths.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,332,841 granted to E. F. Burton et al. on Oct. 26, 1943, an improvement of an earlier patent, is concerned with improving the construction of chairs, again by converting two chairs into a single berth.
T. De Roode was granted U.S. Pat. No. 2,382,402 on Aug. 14, 1945 and again it required conversion of seats to sleeping berths.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,608,366 granted to G. A. Jergenson on Aug. 26, 1952 shows passenger seats facing both forwards and backwards on two sitting levels. Additionally, in the past more space was often allocated to each passenger than today.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,784,989 granted to Legrand on Jan. 15, 1974 was intended to increase passenger comfort by constructing "relax units" in an interlocking structure of individual berths. However, in such an arrangement normal blood flow at pressure points is interfered with, since in the resting position it offers only minimal freedom to move. The proposed solution would give rise to much physical discomfort or even to pain after only a brief period of time.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,227 granted to Buchsel on Jan. 3, 1978 discloses a dual deck seating arrangement. The fixed upper seating deck includes an aisle and is reached by passengers via a stairway.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,612 granted to Halim on May 20, 1986 required the conversion of seating configurations into bedding configurations and vice versa. Further, this invention required that adjacent passengers agree as to when and for how long seats would remain in a bedding configuration. Additionally, sitting in a 90 degree angle posture, as required in the seating configuration, is known to quickly cause a great deal of physical discomfort and even extreme pain in lower back muscle groups. Even young and healthy people find this position extremely uncomfortable after relatively short periods of time, and it is totally intolerable by most older people, by those who are even mildly overweight and by anyone with a chronic illness or impairment involving the heart and lungs. Finally, this invention required that passengers lie in an unsafe position, wherein a passenger's head pointed toward either the front or the rear of the aircraft.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,686,908 issued on Aug. 18, 1987 to Legrand again has lower level seats and upper level lounger chairs with alternating forward and rearward orientations. Again, the position of a passenger's head is in the unsafe direction towards the front or the rear of the aircraft.
The search to increase the comfort of aircraft passengers has been long and some patents have even required changes in the body design of the aircraft, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,115,999 granted to Buchsel et al. on May 26, 1992. Some inventions were very costly in terms of space utilization, and others would have imposed severe limitations on the freedom of passengers to move about within the aircraft, entailing much physical discomfort. Many inventions have required a great deal of labor for repeated assembly and disassembly of berths.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,516 granted to Daines on Jun. 20, 1995 has only two seating levels and requires that some seats be lowered to obtain a fully reclined position. In addition, this invention requires a large amount of space between seat rows.